
Culture & Leadership
Do you know what your guests and customers really want?
When employees are happy, guests notice.
And they spend more money.
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It's obvious – happy, motivated, and productive employees provide better service than sad, apathetic, ineffective employees. But are we really paying attention to how palpable the energy of the staff is, the minute a guest enters the building? Guests notice the way that employees speak and interact with each other. They notice when the team collaborates –when one server steps in to help another in a moment of need, or when management steps in to run a plate of food or fold a stray linen – and when they don’t. These qualities of a healthy team are unquantifiable by any hard metric and extremely difficult to encourage with traditional “carrot and stick” methods of employee management.
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A happy and healthy workforce contributes tangibly to the ambiance of a space. It is just as important, if not more so, than the things we usually think of as ambiance – like decor, lighting, and music. We spend considerable time and resources perfecting these elements to create a space where the guest feels welcomed and excited to be part of. Why, then, should we not place equal focus on cultivating a healthy work culture that encourages excellent employees to stay and guests to return?
THE DATA ON GUESTS
Do you know what makes your team tick?
A healthy work culture not only prioritizes the physical and mental wellbeing of employees, but acknowledges that individuals are not machines. In every industry, but particularly in hospitality, the vast majority of people who come seeking employment have passions and ambitions beyond the restaurant industry. Without a healthy work culture to “convince” them otherwise, their time in the restaurant is almost entirely transactional. The major conflict between employer and employee reigns supreme: All but the most intrinsically self-motivated employees will be tempted to put in as little effort as possible during their working hours in order to maximize their gains from the employer whom they feel only sees them as tools to be exploited.
However, when employees feel happy, supported, connected to the mission of the organization and to each other, it’s an entirely different story. In this scenario, employees are more likely to work diligently and take initiative to improve their surroundings, even when they are not being observed and there is no promise of immediate reward. Employees are more likely to contribute ideas and innovations when they feel valued and supported by their organization. A healthy work culture that prioritizes and encourages collaboration will also empower individuals to hold each other accountable to standards of behavior and expectations of excellence without constant intervention from management.
Unsurprisingly, work culture is a major contributing factor in an employee's decision to leave or continue working with the company. When employees leave, not only is it a logistical and financial burden to replace them, but it can be incredibly difficult to replace the experiential knowledge that disappears with them.
THE DATA ON EMPLOYEES

How It Works:
The Mechanics of Culture
WHY CULTURE MATTERS
A healthy work culture motivates and inspires employees, increasing productivity, collaboration, and innovation, while decreasing burnout, turnover, and the associated costs. Happy employees improve the guest experience, and therefore the financial performance of any business.
What is work culture?
"Work culture," "corporate culture" and "organizational culture" are all synonymous for the norms, values, and rituals that make up the complex dynamics of a workplace. By definition, every workplace will have a culture.
It can either form at random, through accident and circumstance, ebbing and flowing at the mercy of errant policies, or leadership teams can take meaningful steps to set values, communicate them regularly and effectively, and use them to create a healthy environment where employees want to work and guests want to return to time and time again.
Because it is difficult to quantify, work culture is often discounted as a “soft” metric, completely unrelated to hard numbers that make or break a business’ bottom line. In reality, work culture is the deep undercurrent that plays a vital role in any company's overall performance.
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The health of a work culture can make or break an organization's reputation and finances. A healthy work culture is one in which employees feel safe, valued, and heard, where there are opportunities to grow professionally and personally, and where excellence is acknowledged and rewarded.
However, a toxic work culture – where employees feel micromanaged, belittled, unheard, mistrusted by management, distrustful of one another – will only drain an organization of its talent.
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Culture is especially important in hospitality and service-oriented industries where interactions between employees and customers are most prevalent. Then again, what business doesn't have interactions between employees and customers? From one perspective, every business is in the business of service!
Sources
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Chamberlain, A. and Zhao, D. (2019, August 19). The Key to Happy Customers? Happy Employees. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/08/the-key-to-happy-customers-happy-employees
Fornell, C., Mithas, S., Morgeson III, F.V., Krishnan, M.S. (2006). Customer Satisfaction and Stock Prices: High Returns, Low Risk. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 70(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.70.1.003.qxd
Gallup (n.d.). What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Does It Matter? Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/327371/how-to-build-better-company-culture.aspx#ite-327398
Oswald, A.J., Proto, E., Srogi, D. (2009). Happiness and Productivity. Journal of Labor Economics, 1(4645). https://doi.org/10.1086/681096
Tracey, J.B. and Hinkin, T.R. (2006). The Costs of Employee Turnover: When the Devil is in the Details. CHR Reports, 6(15), 4-14. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/71149
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2023, August). Job Openings and Labor Turnover: Quit levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm
Wolter, J.S., Bock, D., Mackey, J., Xu, P., & Smith, J.S. (2019). Employee satisfaction trajectories and their effect on customer satisfaction and repatronage intentions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47, 815-836. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00655-9